“March Against Sharia Law” protesters and counter protesters clash at the intersection of Orange Show and Waterman Avenues in San Bernardino on Saturday, June 10, 2017.

Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, right, poses with Acting Assistant Attorney General Thomas Wheeler at Thursday’s summit of the Hate Crimes Subcommittee, a subcommittee of the presidential <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/02/09/presidential-executive-order-task-force-crime-reduction-and-public">Task Force on Crime Reduction and Public Safety</a> in Washington, D.C.

It’s not your imagination: Hate crimes were up last year — across the nation, state and closer to home.

In 2016, 230 hate crimes were committed in Los Angeles, according to by California State University , San Bernardino’s Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism, up 15 percent over the year before. In Orange County, there were 50 hate crimes, up 13.6 percent over the year before. Of the local communities in the center’s 2016 hate crimes statistics, Long Beach saw a decrease in hate crimes, with eight committed in 2016, down 33 percent from the year before.

Nationally, the center reports 2,173 hate crimes were committed in large cities and counties in 2016, up 6 percent from the year before.

“In 25 major cities and counties throughout the United States for 2016, we found a 6 percent increase,” said Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism. “However, in California, it went up 14 percent.”

The cities of San Bernardino and Riverside don’t have the population to be included in the report, but the center’s data show that Riverside County had 9 hate incidents last year, up from eight the year before, a 12 percent increase. San Bernardino had eight hate crimes in 2016, a 100 percent leap from the four incidents in 2015.

And the trend is even more worrying.

“For California, we can confidently state that when the full data is released by the attorney general, that we’ll have the first back-to-back increases since 1996,” Levin said. “Nationally and in California, we’re at multi-year highs, but well-off the record high of 2001. After years of declines, we’re seeing back-to-back increases, so that’s a concern.”

Last year also looks to be the second consecutive year that hate crimes went up faster in California than the rest of the country.

“There was a definite election-time spike in places like San Jose, Los Angeles, but also New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, Montgomery County, Maryland,” he said. “And the increase in many of these places was dramatic.”

Specifically, hate crimes against gays and Muslims went up right around the November election.

“During the 1980s, in those places that did gather data, we had higher hate crime rates,” he said. “But we don’t have data from many of these places.”

And even now, it’s hard to trust all of the reported data.

“We’re seeing a really uneven response to data collection,” with whole states like Mississippi reporting no hate crimes in 2015.

The center goes beyond police data to survey communities across the country and estimates less than half of actual incidents are reported to the police as hate crimes.

“In places where we have data on incidents, they’re rising faster than official hate crimes,” Levin said. “It’s socially acceptable in many places to be an over the top overt bigot, as long as you’re not committing any crimes.”

“This summit represents a positive first step in what appears to be a sustained effort by the Justice Department to reach out to advocates and subject-matter experts in setting their policy,” Levin said. “If we can continue what started yesterday, this is an important first step.”

Note: This story was updated to clarify that the data cited is the center’s, not the FBI’s, although both draw on similar sources of data.

Beau Yarbrough wrote his first newspaper article taking on an authority figure (his middle school principal) when he was in 7th grade. He’s been a professional journalist since 1992, working in Virginia, Egypt and California. In that time, he’s covered community news, features, politics, local government, education, the comic book industry and more. He’s covered the war in Bosnia, interviewed presidential candidates, written theatrical reviews, attended a seance, ridden in a blimp and interviewed both Batman and Wonder Woman (Adam West and Lynda Carter). He also cooks a mean pot of chili.

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